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This Mezquita initiated the so-called Califal style, which combined Roman, Gothic, Byzantine, Syrian and Persian elements and was the starting-point of all Arabian-Hispanic architecture of the centuries to come, up to the Mudéjar-style of Arabians living in the Spain reconquered by Christians.

Caliph Abderramán I. built the colossal hall, consisting of 11 naves with 110 columns. Above there is a second row of arcs, then an architectonic novelty, creating a unique ambience of light and shadow.
Abderramán II. added 8 more arcs in 833, with columns of white marble taken from the Roman amphitheater of Mérida. Alhakem II built in 961 the minaret, Mihrab, and the Kliba with its cupola of entangled arcs in 961, both being among the major attractions today. The last an most important enlargement was made in 987 by caliph Alamanzor, doubling the original size of the mosque and adding columns of blue and red marble. As the enlargement could be made only towards West, the river Guadalquivir in the South and the palace of the caliph in the East being very close, the mosque of Cordoba is the only one that doesn't have the Mihrab as its central point. The other particularity is that it is not orientated towards Mecca, but towards Damascus - perhaps because of nostalgic feelings of Abderramán I., who expressed in his poetry how much he was missing the mosques of his home-town.
After the last enlargements made, there was place for about 16.000 people.

The Cathedral: when the Christians reconquered Cordoba in 1236, they consecrated the mosque to be the Christian cathedral. In 13th century the first modifications were made and the Royal Chapel, Capilla Real, was added. In 1523 the Catholic Church and King Charles V. put through against the will of the town's administration to build a Christian cathedral inside of the original mosque. Works took 234 years, so the original Gothic style is combined with Baroque and Renaissance elements.